Super Alloy Ranger Review: The Mega Man We Deserve
I’ll be honest, I’m not very adept at 2D platformers, but I couldn’t help but be drawn to the beautiful pixel art oozed by Super Alloy Ranger. Alloy Mushroom’s debut title is an action adventure platformer that reminds me of old-school Mega Man games on the NES. It’s quite evident that this solo developer has poured a great amount of heart and soul, given how smooth and visceral the actual gameplay is. Held back only by a half-baked narrative and some awkward controls on the PC, Super Alloy Ranger serves up an overall excellent nostalgic treat and homage to old school classics.
As the title may suggest, the Alloy Ranger is an advanced and high-tech spacecraft purchased by our two protagonists Kelly and Rambos. A spaceship of this calibre isn’t cheap, so now our heroes are in a lot of debt! The two formulate a fool-proof plan to capture an intergalactic criminal known as Lamos, to cash in on the reward for his arrest. Unfortunately, the Alloy Ranger gets trapped in the protective barrier of a planet known as Tanwada, and must team up with another pair of combat robots to get out of this predicament.
Low Powered Story
It’s a functional enough story that does the bare minimum for an experience of this nature, but I doubt anyone is playing this game solely for the narrative! The lack of voice acting and incessant dialogue can sometimes be a bore, but thankfully you can skip through it. What was most off-putting was that the game started off with a complete absence of sound for the first few minutes to the point where I thought it was a bug.
Where Super Alloy Ranger excels is the platforming, fighting, and level design. I’m always an advocate for multiple difficulty levels, especially in this day and age of gaming, and Super Alloy Ranger doesn’t disappoint with three options. You actually get to play between two characters, Kelly or Combat Robot No. 2. Kelly is a marksman who has access to a wide arsenal of ranged weaponry whereas No. 2 fights up close with a melee skill set. Both characters are equally as viable and fun to play, considering how different their tool kits and abilities are. Their commonality lies in their movesets, with the ability to jump, dodge, dash, run, and cling onto walls. Controls feel smooth, responsive, and natural, with the exception of a few bugs that have been patched out already.
Super Powered Gameplay
All of the stages are well designed, featuring different themes, enemies, and a final boss at the end of it. Only five are available to you from the start, with more to unlock as you progress through the game. Every level offers a nice blend of platforming, combat, and puzzle sections. Checkpoints are quite frequent and there are no instant death scenarios. Collectibles such as key cards that unlock challenge levels along with character upgrades can be found off the beaten path and in secret walls. There’s also more than one way to progress to the end of the level, which is nice considering how linear games of this genre usually are.
Defeating the end-level boss is how you acquire weapon upgrades and special abilities, and this is only rightfully so considering how grand and spectacular they are! The entire game has that futuristic cyberpunk aesthetic, and this is carried over to the enemy varieties as well. Every boss is some sort of giant machine, whether that be a robot or vehicle, and are each uniquely designed. Scattered throughout each level are blue orbs for you to collect, which level up your weapons and incidentally allows them to deal more damage. You’ll want to prioritize finding these orbs as later stages get extremely difficult. A comprehensive mission report is handed to you at the end of each level, telling you how much damage you took, how many orbs you collected, and your overall clear time. I’m not a perfectionist but I’d be lying if I told you I didn’t repeat cleared levels multiple times to try and perfect my score!
Beautiful Pixel Art
Oh, did I mention how stellar and colourful the artwork is? The pixel art sprite work on the main characters, enemies, stages, and bosses are simply exemplary. Every corner of the screen seems to be hand drawn with immaculate detail and love. World building is an extremely difficult task to do right but Alloy Mushroom truly did an amazing job with Super Alloy Ranger, thanks to the art adding more flavor to the already well-crafted level layouts. Accompanying the beautiful graphics is a bopping and catchy soundtrack that elevates the stakes of combat and boss encounters. Every stage contains its own unique background music, so things never feel repetitive or dull.
Conclusion
Sure, Super Alloy Ranger isn’t breaking the mold of 2D action platformers, but Alloy Mushroom manages to perfectly capture the essence of what made old-school classics feel, look, and play great. Not to mention how affordable and humble the asking price is at $9.99. There’s a ton of replayability here, with two characters to play and master, secrets and collectables to find, and plenty of stages to perfect. If you’re a fan of Mega Man games or someone who appreciates gorgeous pixel art, this is a no-brainer purchase for you.
Final Verdict: 4/5
Available on: PC (Reviewed); Publisher: Gamera Games; Developer: Alloy Mushroom; Players: 1; Released: Sep 14, 2022; ESRB: N/A; MSRP: $9.99 USD
Full disclosure: This review is based on a copy of Super Alloy Ranger provided by the publisher.
